I love puzzle games. I always do. It’s my go-to genre games when I feel like need some challenge (besides action games and endless run :)).

A few days ago, Marble Drop, games created by Matt Arbesfeld and Matt Tancik has successfully consumed lots of my time. Started as simple as drop colored marbles into funnels that match marble’s color, the game evolves as a challenging game with a wide variety of game mechanic.

The game itself contains 60 levels currently, divided into 3 packs, Carnival, Space, and Factory. Each pack contains 20 levels that gets even harder when you advance.

During the 60 levels, you will be introduced with a rich mechanic like canons, color mixers, explosives, teleporter, marble generator, and trust me, the later you play, the harder it gets.

You will need to get enough stars/cash to unlock the level pack. To gain stars, all you need to do is to finish the level with fast and efficient move. Each level that has been finished will also reward you coins. This coins can be used to unlock the hints that available on each level.

Things I Like

I love the difficulty level of this game. Although sometimes the level design lost its consistency, but the challenging level kept me playing the game and losing my time consistently.

Not to mention the rich game mechanics that introduced throughout the game. It feels like the level design is bottomless. I still haven’t finished the whole level pack, but although I already got halfway through the game, I still can’t figure out what the next level will look like.

On my next checklist is the chalk-board theme. I love this theme that has been designed consistently throughout the game. It feels back in my school days where all is in black board and also colorful chalks.

Tips

I have some tips that will help you to get more stars during the game.

Don’t be afraid to try. You can always retry the level to get more coin. And when it might not get you the 3-stars on the first attempt, you can always retry the level to get more stars.

Double Tap. To increase timing efficiency, you can double tap the screen to increase the marble movement speed. This way, you can reduce the timing needed by marbles to move. It will also reduce your time spent in one level.

Memorize the sequence and timing. It might get harder on the later game even if you retry the level. So to increase movement efficiency, use pen and paper to capture your movement when you do the first attempt. Then on your next attempt, just take the marble and put it right away just like your note.

Take Your Time. The level will get harder in time, don’t be afraid if your first attempt won’t get you 3-stars. Just make sure you finish the level (to get coins), then you can just retry it.

Retry previous Level. Don't be afraid to retry the previous level since it will give you cash after you finish. This cash can be used to open a hint in a difficult level.

Use Hint. It's okay to use some hints. You can always retry the previous level to get cash. In this way, you can always get the first hint with ease.

Airplane Mode. There will be ads popped up randomly when you’re restarting the level. In order to avoid this annoying pop up, you can always turn on the airplane mode while playing the game. Beside saving the battery life (so you can play longer :)), there won’t be any pop up ads disturb you playing.

With a wide game mechanics throughout the game, these are some tips that I found will be useful when we encounter these mechanics.

Fill to tip will act as a temporary places (bucket). Since the marble in the bucket will be poured out once it fully filled, make sure that you reverse the place for marbles. So for example, if the target tunnel is Red->Yellow->Blue, you have to order the marble inside the bucket in Blue->Yellow->Red order.

Color Mixer will hold the first marble when it came to the color mixer. It will go through the mixer once the second marble comes. But, after go out the mixer, the color of the marble will be mixed. Red+Yellow=Orange, Blue+Red=Purple, Blue+Yellow=Green. Note that any color of those two combination will be turned into gray color once it mixed with any color.

Cannon needs a precise timing. The timing when to switch the of the cannon will decide the marble's efficiency in that level.

Switch and Trigger. With Trigger, every time a marble pass through it, the switch will also be triggered. To make this easier, pay attention to the red line, you will know which switch will be triggered when the marble pass through trigger.

Teleporter & Receiver. In this game mechanic, teleporter will be the one with colorless circle. Every time a marble got into a teleporter, it will be teleported into the receiver with respective color. Pay attention to this and you will master this mechanic easily.

Trigger & Receiver. Now this is the trickiest part I've ever encountered when playing this game. Theoretically the same with the previous mechanic I've explained. But, the difference is you have to pay attention to the trigger as well, check your target and which trigger-receiver that enables this. Afterwards, drop your marble away.

Gravity will delay your timing a bit if you don't pay attention to what the gravity status is. So always look at gravity's status to ensure the efficiency of your marble.

There are plenty of mechanics in this game like Explosives, Conveyor, and Scaling that I still play with and still looking out for the best way to get the best of each mechanic. Leave some comment below if you find out about anything with these mechanics.

Conclusion

Just like many other puzzle great game, Marble Drop can also be counted as a great puzzle game. If you call yourself a puzzle lover, this game will satisfy your hunger of difficult puzzle game. With a bottomless level design, Marble Drop easily surprise us in each of their level.